AIKEN, S.C. -- Augusta State used a late 12-0 spurt to pull away from West No. 2 seed Montevallo and register a 61-52 victory Saturday night in the semifinals of the Peach Belt Conference Championships at the USCA Convocation Center.
The fifth-ranked and top-seeded Jaguars (27-3) will face UNC Pembroke at 4:30 p.m., Sunday in the championship game. The Braves upset the PBC West Division regular-season champion Georgia Southwestern 69-68 in the last game of the day late Saturday. The tournament winner earns the PBC's automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament.
With the victory, the Jags posted their fourth consecutive season of 27 or more wins and advanced to the league tourney's championship game for the sixth time and second time in the last three seasons. The win also avenged an 81-77 loss to Montevallo in the 2010 PBC Tournament semifinals.
Senior guard George Johnson canned three 3-pointesrs and tallied a game-high 19 points, five rebounds and three steals. Junior point guard O'Neal Armstrong added 16 points and Franck Ndongo notched his seventh double-double with 11 points and a game-high 10 rebounds.
Montevallo was led by Tyrell Coleman's 11 points. Antoine Davis and Ryan Westbrooks added 10 points each and Davis also grabbed a team-high seven rebounds.
In a game that featured 11 ties and a season-high 17 lead changes, Johnson sparked the surge with a 3-pointer at the 5:33 mark for a 45-43 ASU lead. Tye Beal followed with a three-point play, then Armstrong put in a reverse layup and Johnson drained two free throws before Ndongo's offensive rebound and putback off an offensive rebound.
Montevallo finally broke the drought with Coleman's free throw with 1:59 left. ASU closed out the scoring on the free throw line, going seven-for-eight.
After a slow start in the first half -- neither team scored for the first two-and-a-half minutes -- the teams tied five times before Montevallo settled for a 25-22 halftime lead.
ASU's biggest lead of the first half came at 15-12 with 5:08 remaining, while Montevallo's was three points on two occasions at 5-2 (14:57) and at 25-22 (halftime).
ASU shot 50 percent in the second half and 37.3 percent overall (19-of-51) and were 5-of-14 from long range (35.7 percent). The Jags, ranked second in the nation in free throw percentage, were 18-of-22 at the charity stripe 81.8 percent).
Montevallo was 19-of-40 from the field (47.5 percent), including 5-of-14 from distance (35.7 percent). The Falcons were just 9-of-17 at the free-throw line 52.9 percent).
Augusta State head coach Dip Metress
"We knew the game would be ugly. Montevallo is very similar to us, but we found a way to make a few shots in the second half and feel very fortunate to be playing tomorrow for the championship. It wasn't pretty, but we will take a W. Montevallo is hard to guard the way they play."
"Those two misses really hurt them. Davis missed two crucial ones, and we made two run outs, and that was huge. I knew it would be like this. I knew we would not be able to speed them up the way Danny plays. That's not the way they've played this season."
"They pressured us more last time, but today, they sagged on us. It's was obvious two minutes in what their plan was. That was a different game plan that we haven't seen often. But we made good adjustments in the second half to get some separation."
"The poise and making free throws was important down the stretch. They are such a tough team to play against. Everytime we play them, it's two sloppy teams playing each other."
Augusta State senior guard George Johnson
"Coached has stressed since Tuesday that this was going to be a tough game. A credit to them - Montevallo played real hard and knocked some big shots when they needed to. We knew if we kept the pressure on them for 40 minutes, they would break, and that's what happened."
Montevallo head coach Danny Young
"I thought we played hard and we were in the game. But with 4:13 remaining, missing those two free throws and letting George Johnson loose twice was key. Free throw shooting has been tough for us all season."
"Defensively, the game plan was good and we've been doing that well all season. We can guard, but we've had a problem scoring and a big problem making our foul shots."
"In the last four minutes, we just fell apart. The game plan worked, but we let Johnson loose for those two 3s and the game just got away."
